The present invention relates to an apparatus for cleaning the organ conveying products to be cooked in tunnel ovens. Such ovens are used in the industrial field to cook products of various kinds, for instance foodstuffs such as cookies or cakes. The oven usually comprises a cooking chamber inside which are located, in succession, regions at increasing temperature. The products to be cooked are made to pass inside the chamber by means of a conveyor organ which moves along a loop trajectory composed by a path inside the oven and a return route outside the oven.
The conveyor usually has a belt-like structure formed by a grid, in order to ensure that the lower part of the product is also cooked properly.
The requirement for a high production rate and the energy wastage encountered during the light-off and shut-down phases mean that for these ovens it is important to operate continuously, with very rare idle periods for maintenance.
A critical problem for the proper operation of these devices is represented by the cleanliness of the conveyor.
The products entering the oven, being raw, can easily leave residues on the conveyor. Since the latter is rotating, there is an accumulation of such residues which jeopardizes the success of the cooking operation. This material, in addition to xe2x80x9cfoulingxe2x80x9d the raw products, can also fill the meshes of the grid constituting the conveyer, preventing the part of the product which rests thereon from cooking and the water contained in the product from evaporating.
The prior art provides for cleaning the moving conveyor by means of metal brushes mounted on rollers arranged transversely to the conveyor.
This solution, however, presents considerable drawbacks.
First of all, the brushes tend to get fouled with the same material which they are supposed to eliminate from the conveyor, with the consequent loss of cleaning effectiveness.
Secondly, the metal bristles, in their rotating motion, cannot clean all points in the grid. Thus, some material remains deposited on the sides of the grid meshes, in particular in correspondence with its nodes. When the material traverses the oven again, it hardens and irremovably binds the grid, enlarging the surface whereon new residues can be deposited. This chain process can lead to the complete clogging of the grid.
In light of the above description, the fundamental aim of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for cleaning the conveyor for tunnel ovens, able to solve the drawbacks listed above.
In particular, the technical task of the invention is to devise an apparatus which is not subject to loss of effectiveness due to contamination caused by the same material it has to remove.
A further aim of the invention is to obtain an apparatus which assures the total removal of the residues present on the conveyor.
The specified technical task and the aims set out above are substantially achieved by an apparatus for cleaning the conveyor in tunnel ovens as described in the accompanying claims.